GPL May Be Tested in Israeli Courts

Ars Technica: Dispute Over GPL Could Be Headed to Court

"Israeli open source software developer Alexander Maryanovsky has filed a lawsuit against international master chess player Alexander Rabinovich alleging that the chess player and his organization have violated the GPL. According to Maryanovsky, it started when Rabinovich started a company, International Chess University (IChessU), with the intention of teaching chess to students over the Internet using interactive software. Rather than develop a framework from scratch, Rabinovich decided to use Jin, Maryanovsky's network chess client application. Maryanovsky offered Rabinovich a $4,000 license that would facilitate proprietary redistribution. Rabinovich turned down the licensing offer, and said that IChessU would use the program and simply comply with the terms of the GPL..."

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Jinchess.com: IChessU vs. Jin--The Story

"About half a year ago, I was approached by a Mr. Alexander Rabinovich, who is an Israeli (I'm in Israel too) international master. He told me that his start-up, the International Chess University, is working on developing a chess server and a client, and asked whether I am available to help them.

"Unfortunately, (or, in retrospect, fortunately) I was too busy finishing my CS degree at the time, so I told him that I could not help. I also told him that there was no need to develop a client from scratch--he could simply use Jin..."

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